A fireplace adds character and value to your home. When a person imagines their dream house, the house typically includes a cozy home that keeps you and your family warm in the winter, either with a smoothly running furnace or snuggling around a cozy fire.
It’s hard to resist the appeal of of a toasty fire, but how do you choose between a gas or wood burning fireplace? There are many factors to consider when deciding how to heat your home.
Aesthetics and Efficiency
- Wood: A wood burning fireplace typically wins in the sensation category. You get the crackle. You get the pop. You get the opportunity to roast marshmallows indoors. Something you don’t get is a powerful heating source. Wood fires typically receive up to a 15% efficiency rating, considerably lower than a furnace that has consistent service performed. They do generate a lot of heat, but most of that heat is released up the chimney. Wood burning fireplaces not only lose the heat coming from the fire, but it also pulls warm air from other parts of the house up and out the chimney.
- Gas: There have been many style advances in gas fireplaces. The flames have become more realistic and many designs offer diverse height adjustments. The logs used in gas fireplaces now have the look of the real thing and come complete with glimmering embers, which don’t require you to wait while they burn out. You can merely switch your gas fireplace on and off, providing you more control over the temperature of you home and frees you from having to keep an eye on your fire. The lack of fire stealing oxygen gives gas fireplaces a 75% to 99% efficiency rating. Just imagine the level of comfort you could have when you combine that with a well-maintained furnace.
Air Quality and Maintenance
- Wood: Air quality is important to homeowners and homebuyers. Burning wood generates air pollution in and outside your home and the smoky wood smell that a wood burning fireplace gives off could be a health hazard. Wood also creates a byproduct called creosote that lines the coating of the chimney and must be removed by a chimney sweep. Much like furnaces that should have furnace service completed annually, gas fireplaces also require recurrent cleanings of cinders and spent logs.
- Gas: Gas fireplaces only require some dusting every now and then and are virtually maintenance free. It is recommended that you get your gas fireplace cleaned and adjusted yearly by a specialist to keep it operating both safely and smoothly.
If you want to convert your wood burning fireplace into a gas fireplace or you simply want to schedule your seasonal furnace service, please give us a call at 954-736-4314 or schedule an appointment through our website. Our experts will have you snuggled up by the fire in no time.